So it’s official — GM’s bankrupt. Bring on the PR campaign. Actually, don’t; the agency entrusted with giving Americans “permission to believe” in GM again (as one of the Morning Joe heads just said) is the same bunch of geniuses who embarrassed GM with its . . . . Continue Reading »
David Brooks’ recent column on genius , which offered a portrait of the Mozart who excelled by logging his ten thousand hours of rote practice to get on sooner to the good stuff, seemed to gibe poorly with not only our romantic understanding of unique human excellence but our practical . . . . Continue Reading »
The success of Dan Brown’s “message,” Ross writes in his latest column, can’t be separated from its dishonesty. The “secret” history of Christendom that unspools in “The Da Vinci Code” is false from start to finish . The lost gospels are real enough, but . . . . Continue Reading »
The latest issue of Modern Age (Winter 2009) is now available for general consumption and features a symposium on Remi Brague’s amazingly erudite book The Law of God . Besides a very fine lead contribution from Mark Shiffman (who blogs over at Front Porch Republic ) you’ll also find short . . . . Continue Reading »
President Obama’s commencement address at dear old Notre Dame last Sunday has sure kicked up a lot of dust in the blogosphere! My goodness, you’d’ve thought Satan himself had journeyed to South Bend and offered the wobbly Catholics out there an opportunity to “dialogue” . . . . Continue Reading »
A debate is shaping up between two visions of the way forward for the GOP. You could describe the battle as Nerds vs. Heroes. Unlike the world of comics, where heroes to nerds dominate, there is not much prospect for a synthesis between Republican Nerds and would-be Republican Heroes, although many . . . . Continue Reading »
I remember not long ago walking out of one of those beltway morning movement pressers with a fellow ingrate. I was lamenting the hidebound, blinkered establishmentarian attitude that, it appeared, was intended to serve the Republican party indefinitely. But in 2006 it was already clear that . . . . Continue Reading »
Matt Frost tips me to Terry McAuliffe’s latest bit of campaign publicity — hamming it up with will.i.am, that musical posterdude of the campaign (Obama’s) which the Macker, not so long ago, was staying up nights trying to discredit into oblivion. Terry failed; but then again, he . . . . Continue Reading »
It is generally accepted by both the left and the right that science itself is a morally neutral enterprise, since it merely creates the mechanisms of power that can be used for moral and immoral purposes alike. In a public speech a few years ago, President Bush expressed this commonly-held view, . . . . Continue Reading »
There’s something sublimely deranged about paying for otherwise unaffordable government outlays with the losses incurred at government-sponsored gambling tables , isn’t there? Long-term planning: now made possible by exacerbating the worst follies of short-term thinking! . . . . Continue Reading »
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